A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site. The state information can be used for authentication, identification of a user session, user's preferences, shopping cart contents, or anything else that can be accomplished through storing text data on the user's computer. Cookies are not software. They cannot be programmed, cannot carry viruses, and cannot install malware on the host computer. However, they can be used by spyware to track user's browsing activities – a major privacy concern that prompted European and US law makers to take action. Cookies can also be stolen by hackers to gain access to a victim's web account. (Excerpt from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie">Wikipedia article: HTTP cookies</a>)

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